A Glass Half Full, and More Being Poured

The academic discipline of TEFL should be viewed as an applied science in that it conducts research with the ultimate aim of enhancing the teaching of English in all its practical complexity. However, TEFL research appears increasingly beholden to what Maxwell calls the philosophy of knowledge, namely an overemphasis on generating knowledge while neglecting “the tasks of articulating problems of living, and proposing and criticizing possible solutions. In refraining from doing this – as a result of complying with the philosophy of knowledge – organized inquiry fails to do what it most needs to do if it is to help people everywhere realize what is of value to them in life” (Maxwell 1984, 48–49). This lecture hazards a Maxwellian perspective in TEFL by discussing the possible implications of the latest technological advancements in Artificial Intelligence. One important touchstone within this endeavor is the consideration of language teacher wellbeing (Sulis et al. 2023).